Kelsea Ballerini jumped right in with her heart first when she took the stage at the Grand Ole Opry on Tuesday evening (April 26). Still reliving the performance the following morning, the “half of my hometown” singer explained why it was a notable evening for her latest single, “HEARTFIRST.”
Ballerini's Opry show also included a cover of “Cowboy Take Me Away” by The Chicks, her 2017 hit “Miss Me More,” “hole in the bottle,” and an unreleased song called “what i have.” She and the Opry posted snippets of each performance on their Instagram stories. Ballerini explained in a video shared by the Opry:
“I’m always excited to play here, but whenever I get to play a new song for the first time there’s like an extra little glitter in the air. So, I’m playing my new single ‘HEARTFIRST,’ not only for the first time with my band ever — truly ever — but for people for the first time, and it happens to be in the circle.”
Ballerini performed “HEARTFIRST” during the 2022 CMT Music Awards earlier this month, but she did it with only silhouettes of her band and without a live audience. Instead, she performed from her backyard. Ballerini performed and resumed co-hosting duties from home after testing positive for COVID-19. Her husband, fellow country artist Morgan Evans, hilariously shared behind-the-scenes videos on TikTok: “When she tests positive for Covid but still hosts the CMT Music Awards from the living room and I get to watch from the couch wearing ugg boots and even still [their dog] Dibs is not impressed.”
“HEARTFIRST” debuted earlier this month. Ballerini wrote it with Karen Fairchild and Alysa Vanderheym. Julian Bunetta and Shane McAnally produced the song. “I chose ‘HEARTFIRST’ as the first single off the new project because I feel like it just sets the tone for everything I’m working on right now,” Ballerini said. “It’s very warm, very breezy-feeling, very settled. That’s kind of the tone of the whole project that I’m working on, and I feel like ‘HEARTFIRST’ was the first step into that new world.”
Listen to “HEARTFIRST” here: